The awakening of the lady
by GamesPeoplePlay
Summary: set in ginny fifth year. Draco n Ginny have to do an arithmancy project together and unravel the coded diaries of randalph rampant.what will unfold? DG obviously
1. Introduction

Ginny Weasley lay on her bed, thinking. She was happy. Today was the day she was going to Hogwarts. This was her fifth year. Everything seemed to be going smoothly since last year, since the downfall of you-know-who. She was a prefect. The smartest person in her year.

She had even gotten pretty over the years. From the overly tall scrawny girl with long stringy hair and a flat, thin body, she now looked very becoming. Her lengthy red locks caught the light when she moved showing of different shades of red. Her body had filled out as well. Her face was no longer looked pinched, but long and with high cheekbones. Yes, Ginny Weasley was a face turner.

She looked at the clock on the wall. It was looked like a muggle clock but it had a voice. Right now it was snoring, a soft breathing sound. Its eyes were closed, so she could not see the time. She gently prodded one eye and with a soft grunt the clock's eyes opened.

"Good morning, Timer" said Ginny cheerfully. Although Ginny was a morning person her clock was not.

"Good morning Ginny" said timer his face revealed it was just 5:00 she had 6 more hours until they left. She sighed. She was not going to get any sleep now. She swung her legs around the bed and stood up. Grabbing her jeans and t-shirt she ran softly to the bathroom so as to not wake up Hermione who was sleeping on the bed next to hers.

She came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, after having a shower. She swept her long hair into a many styles until deciding to leave it down her back. She wondered what to do and decided to check her trunk once more.

There, she found all her books and her clothes. Only one book was out and that was her arithmancy textbook. Ginny loved arthimancy .She loved to learn new things. She was very good in it. Infact, she was so good that she was taking arithmancy with the sixth years from this year onwards. She grinned at the prospect.

Seeing that everything was packed, she decided to head downstairs. Taking a final look at her reflection, she opened the door and went outside her room and down the stairs.

In the kitchen she found nobody. She saw on the table a plate of scones magically charmed to stay hot. She gulped down two and then grabbed her broom. A firebolt 500 which she had won at the competition held during the vacation at the quidditch center in ottery st. catchpole. It was open to fifteen years and above and she had visited a lot when she had come back from Hogwarts . After all a chaser has to stay in shape. Ginny had taken the place of one of the chasers on the quidditch team when Alicia, Angelina and Katie had graduated. She was the best chaser Griffindor had on their team for the past twenty years.

She grabbed her broom and headed out of the door to the quidditch center for a quick half hour of quidditch.

Ginny returned at 8.she had a quick breakfast with Harry, Ron and Hermione and left for the platform.

On reaching the station Harry and co. separated from Ginny leaving all alone with her huge suitcase. She had been counting on Harry or Ron to help her carry her suitcase.

She looked about for help. Lots of boys smiled at her and went up to her to help her carry her suitcase. She grinned. One boy, a handsome sixth year,approached her and offered to carry her suitcase. She entered the train and decided on sitting in the last compartment, as she wanted to be alone.

So far everything was going smoothly. Suddenly the door opened. Ginny expecting it to be the trolley witch dug her hand into her pocket to retrieve some money.

When she looked up she saw a flash of golden hair. "Oh no" she thought. "Why did he have to come here?" And sure enough there came his taunting voice.

"Why if it isn't the weasel" said a loud drawling voice. "All grown up I see, no Potter to protect you, now, is there."

"Shut up Malfoy or I will hex you"

To her surprise Malfoy spun his head around and left. Then she saw the reason for his sudden departure. Professor moody. He had been taking their DADA class for the past 2 years. Malfoy never got on well with moody.

He entered the compartment and saw Ginny. Giving her a smile, she sat next to her and began to talk. Ginny began to feel uneasy. She had never liked professor Moody except for the incident with the ferret. She began to wish that Malfoy were here. At least she could hex him.

Ginny sighed and went on listening to Moody as he raved on how unsafe everything was.

Ginny looked about her arithmacy class. Today was the first day of school and her first class was arithmacy.no one had arrived yet. She knew her class wasn't with the sixth years Griffindors.it was with the Huffflepuffs and Slytherins.she felt happy in spite of having Malfoy in her class as she remembered the incident in the train.

One by one all the slytherins and Hufflepuffs arrived.Malfoy sat right at the opposite end from her. She felt glad.

Soon professor vector entered the class. She smiled at all of them.

"Good morning everyone. This year dumbledore has devised a new way of teaching" she stopped and looked around the class "instead of yearly exams you will be given a project which you have to complete during the course of the year. You will have regular teaching lessons and homework. The project will have to be done with a partner since it is lengthy and will be difficult."

"I will be setting the partners up. It will be set up with a person from the opposite house" at this everybody groaned. However professor vector ignored them and started of the pairing.

"Macmillan with Zambini. Abbot with Crabbe. Floyd with Goyle. Weasley and Malfoy. Flinch-fletchy and..." She continued with the pairings.

Ginny mouth dropped open. She'd have to do a project for a whole year with Malfoy.this could not get any worse.

"I will tell you more about this project in the next lesson. Class dismissed," said Prof. Vector with a wave of her hand.

the next arithmancy class……….

Ginny was happy. So far professor Vector had not mentioned anything about the project. But then her dreams were shattered. It was nearing the end of the class.

"Now students' about the project. You will have respective study times, which are posted on the notice board. You will have to go collect the needed information from the library. Each pair will be working on a different project, depending upon the ability of the students to work hard. I expect everybody to work hard if they want to pass their grade. Every one will have to keep record of what they are doing and show it to me every month."

"I will now read the projects for each of the groups." and she proceeded to do it. By the end of the list everyone's name and pair had been called out except for Ginny and Draco's.

Ginny raised her hand to ask out why, but professor vector intercepted her thoughts.

"Will Miss Weasley and Mr. Malfoy meet me after classes today in my office? I have to talk to you regarded your project.

After a day of tiring classes, Ginny was back in the arithmancy classroom. Her last class, divination, had been cancelled due to 'unforeseen difficulties which may come if the class had taken place' or at least according to Trelawney. Privately, Ginny thought that she was a tiny bit miffed that Dumbeldore had not listened to her suggestion of making divination a mandatory subject as no one was taking it very seriously.

Ginny had decided to go there early and wait. After all, she had nothing better to do. She was the only one who took divination from the sixth year Griffindor; so all the other students had classes. She only took it because, Ginny was a SEER. She could predict the future with ease. No hoaxes like Trelawney.and she could read people's mind. But only Up to a certain extent. If a person were thinking about her, she would know. But she would not know if it was good or bad. She could also talk to other people through their minds. This was something she was good at. No one knew of her power except Trelawney, Dumbeldore and her best friend Shannon.

As she was absorbed in her thoughts, she did not notice a slim blond enter the room and scream the wits out of her.


	2. the project 1

"Argh, Malfoy. What was that for, you great prat."Said Ginny after recovering herself from her recent shock.  
  
"Ooh the little Weasley was scared was she?" said Malfoy in his usual drawling voice.  
  
But they were saved from any further arguments when professor Vector entered the class.  
  
"Good evening students" said professor Vector merrily smiling at the two of them. "Just a second. I need to get the files for your project." she summoned the files.  
  
"Aah yes. Since you two are the top of your years in arithmancy, a special project has been given to you. You will be working on the many dairies of Randolph Rampant."  
  
Seeing the surprised look on their faces, and rightly assuming that they did not know who he was, she continued. "He was a great arithmeticians. Fortunately all his dairies have been saved. You see he died more than a hundred years ago. Since then no one has been able to decipher all the dairies. That is why the project has been handed on to you." she beamed at them.  
  
"How do you know that we can solve it? I mean, since none of greater wizards have been able to do it?" asked Draco his voice full of curiosity. This was starting to get interesting.  
  
"In all 50 years of my teaching of Hogwarts, I have not known 2 such children who are so brilliant in their work." She paused. "I wasn't so sure of giving this project to the both of you. At least until a few days ago. When I was browsing through some old divination folders, I found some parchment. Its color suggested that it did not belong there. I took it out and read it. Imagine my surprise when I deciphered it. It pointed to the works of the great works of Rampant. It went on to further say that the works could only be deciphered by fire and ice. At first at pondered over it. Then the conclusion came. They were talking about hair color! Since my best students at arithmancy have the hair color of red and silver, the conclusion was easy. I pondered over the remaining scriptures and they all pointed to you, miss Ginny and Mr. Malfoy. It all fit together like a puzzle. Now he only thing left is for you to solve it.  
  
Ginny was shocked. She did not know what to think. Just imagine plain, old Ginny Weasley in a prophecy. She smiled. This was the most exciting thing that ever happened to her, except when she got selected for Quidditch. She smiled again. But her only regret was that she was going to have to work with Malfoy.  
  
She could see Malfoy covering his expressions of shock on his face and putting on his usual bored one. She wondered why he was so...so aloof. Then she snapped her self out of it. She was feeling sorry for a Malfoy. He did not need pity.  
  
She went back thinking how exciting this project would be. She was suddenly startled by Draco's voice,  
  
"It all sounds great, professor Vector. When do we start?" Said Draco. This was something new to him. Sure, he was smart, but he did not think that arithmancy would get him anywhere. He had taken it to as he was very interested in adding and finding out the future and stuff like that. But he was not going to tell anybody that. Draco Malfoy was secretive and kept his thoughts to himself and only opened his mouth either to insult somebody, give orders to Crabbe and goyle or to answer teachers.  
  
"You will not be working in the library. It will be too disturbing, as these papers have rather complicated designs and figures. You will not be able to work with all the noise there."Professor Vector said addressing the two of them.  
  
"I have spoken to professor dumbeldore and he has agreed to what I suggested," she continued. You will be getting a separate room to work in. I will give you the map. You will find everything you need there. You are expected to start from today. Since this is a special project, you will have extended time. You will be informed when you have to stop. It could take well over two years to complete. You will have t work very hard" she said shifting her gaze alternately from Draco to Ginny.  
  
"You can leave now." she said handing out the maps leading to the room.  
  
Once outside the door, Ginny found Ron waiting for her. 'Probably wants something from me, like some money to buy yet another present for hermione' she thought bitterly. Ron and hermione were going out since last year, and Ron loved to buy her gifts.  
  
She was right. He stepped out and directly asked her for money, but not before eyeing Draco, who was standing behind Ginny, waiting to talk to her.  
  
"Tonight, eight o'clock Weasley" said Draco with his customary smirk. He knew this would anger Ron. And how right he was. He rushed to punch Draco. Ginny whipped out her wand and put a restraining charm on him, long enough for Draco to smirk at Ron and walk away.  
  
Ron was furious. "You are going out with the bloody prat." He spat at her. And then he slapped her. Hard. He did not want to listen to her excuses. For a minute Ginny was shocked. Then she put a spell on him. And then bellowing on the top of her voice explained about the project. Ron looked sheepish and apologized to her. She just gave him a look of pure discontent and stomped of.  
  
Ron did not bother to run after her. He just wanted some money; he did not want to apologize again to his baby sister.  
  
Draco was watching all this. He had been hiding behind a statue of a stone gargoyle. He was surprised that Ginny had stood up for him. He expected her to let Ron beat him up.  
  
'This is going to be an interesting year' He said a slight smile on his face.  
  
  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Draco stood staring after Ginny. He was still surprised that she had stood up for him. He grinned  
  
Draco had grown in the past few years. He was no longer the thin, tall boy who taunted potter. He was now tall and very handsome. Instead of his silvery hair, which he had earlier, he now had golden hair, which girls were irresistible to. His body had filled out as well. He was very muscular after years of Quidditch training. Most girls found him irrestible.  
  
Draco slowly made his way down to the library. He wanted to think this over. The redhead was very pretty and she did not even acknowledge it. She had lovely curves, which highlighted her great body. Unfortunately her robes hid everything.  
  
He reached the library. He entered it softly as to not anger the grouchy Madame pince who seemed to be telling at a poor first year for 'disturbing the peace and silence of the library'. For once Draco agreed with her.  
  
Draco decided that he would look awkward without a book, so he went behind a bookshelf to search for one. He wondered what to take when he remembered Randolf Rampant. He searched a few shelves and came across a book with the title; arithmancy's great scientists and achievers .he smiled this was what he wanted.  
  
He took the book with him and sat at an empty table. He swung the heavy book on the small table. He opened it and looked in the index and found what he was looking for;Randolf Rampant the unknown. He wondered why the strange name until he saw the page; there was only about half a page on him given in a very curly, swirly script. He sighed. He had planned to read at least five pages on Randolf Rampant. Thinking that it was probably better to copy it down, he reached into his bag and pulled out a quill and a piece of parchment. Slowly he copied word by word. There were long words and it was in Latin so he had to translate each sentence before writing it down. After nearly an hour he was done. He inspected it one last time before keeping the book back in the shelf and checking the name of the book.  
  
Randolf Rampant  
  
Randolf Rampant was a great arithmetician and wizard, though not much was known about him. There are just a few well-known facts about him. Randolf Rampant lived in Scotland .he studied in durmstrang in Bulgaria, as he was not very rich and education then was very expensive. After his graduation, he remained at durmstrang, though not as a student but as a teacher of the then highly favored and extremely difficult subject of the dark arts. He had taken the job out of two reasons: he badly needed the money and the only thing he had qualified better than any of his peers was at the dark arts.  
  
From the defense against the dark arts, the class changed to the powers of demonstrating and the use of dark arts, as it is today. However Rampant taught in a way that was most abusive. It was said that he regularly put students under dark spells, including inperius (the other unforgivables weren't invented yet) for long periods of time. After a while the head master of the school, none other than professor Idril gave him the pink slip.  
  
Furious, and now with no money, Rampant retired back to Scotland at the mere age of 25.he spent most of his time in an house, an old beaten up shack. However after a little while, he accumulated great amounts of wealth, which he claimed he had inherited from a rich uncle.  
  
People however had other thoughts, especially his neighbors who would be woken at sometime in the night by loud cursing and swearing. They also heard mutterings of dark curses.  
  
After accumulating his great wealth Rampant moved into a new neighbourhood.with his great wealth he bought a new house, but he continued his late nights and his regular periods of disturbing words and curses still occurred.  
  
It is said that Randolf Rampant maintained his life in pages and dairies. These were found a year later after he died which was in 1862.all his papers were in code. But a few papers were translated and they revealed the spell wingardium leviosa, which is in great use of today. They also revealed a few other spells and charms which are less popular today.  
  
After his death, his dairies were transported to the ministry and to record are still there today. Great scientists still puzzle over the dairies of Randolf Rampant.  
  
~@~  
  
That was all that was given. Draco stared at the piece of parchment in his hands, suddenly noting that the time was half to eight and also how hungry he was. Deciding that he would show his new information to Weasley, he put it in his pocket, and headed to the great hall for a quick dinner.  
  
  
  
  
  
________________________________________________________________________  
  
  
  
  
  
Ginny was in a good mood. Today nearly everything had gone her way. She smiled happily.  
  
Looking up from her happy daze she saw the time and panicked.there was less than an hour left for her meeting with Malfoy. After having a quick shower, she went down to the great hall for dinner.  
  
On reaching the great hall and seeing her friends sitting with their respective boyfriends, she made her way to an empty seat and the end of the table, deciding to be inconsipious as possible to avoid anyone from seeing her lack of friends.  
  
A little while later, after finishing her dinner she made her way back to the common room. As soon as she sat down on one of the most comfy chairs, all prepared to go to sleep, she remembered the project. She had not been able to do much research during the day due to the time consuming nature of quidditch and lessons.  
  
She rushed up the stairs to her dormitory, where she had kept her bag. Grabbing a few quills, a couple of sheets of parchment and her arithmancy translation's and dictionary, she rushed down, grabbing the map on the way.  
  
She found the room with ease. It was only a short walk from the Griffindor tower. The door was of great oak and was very huge. Timidly she opened the huge door and entered. She gasped at the sight that met her eyes.  
  
The room was large, no doubt. There was a long table and two couches.there were also a number of boxes, which were as far as Ginny could see, were stuffed with parchment. There were at least twenty boxes.  
  
"Welcome Weasley" said a loud drawling voice from one of the couches. "Finally decided to show up." Ginny jumped she had not noticed Malfoy as he was hidden by the massive piles of parchment in front of him.  
  
"At least try to be civil, while we are working together." snapped Ginny.  
  
"Right" said Draco much to Ginny surprise. He made his way to the table and gestured her to sit besides him.  
  
Putting her bag on one of the couches, she made her way towards the table, and took a seat next to Draco. He started explaining what they were starting.  
  
"The boxes aren't labeled so we have to sort them out. Since you did not show up, I chose one to start with. It looked like the one with the least parchement."He said as if picking an excuse for choosing that particular box.  
  
Ginny looked at the sheets in the cardboard box. She took out a couple of them. They had writings all over them. "Where should we start? They all look the same to me." said Ginny with obvious confusion.  
  
Sighing Draco took the papers from her and said, "let's start with these. They look like these are the beginnings of a paragraph." He took out what he thought to be the first page and placed it before them. Then is muttered 'copius' under his breath and then almost instantly there were two copies of the sheet.  
  
Draco leaned over and pointed out from where to start. Ginny took out the parchment she had brought along and started translating.  
  
Ginny bit her lip. This was very tedious they had been at it for nearly three hours. The time was nearly eleven. So far all they had translated was 2 paragraphs. The main information was about the history of arithmancy, a lot of which she had not known, and something of what to expect in the other papers. She revised her paper once before comparing it with Draco's  
  
Arithmancy is an ancient form of fortune telling. But unlike divination, arithmancy is not based on interpreting fuzzy images, or attributing meaning to random shapes and squiggles, or to reading of shapeless tealeaves, but on hard-and-fast rules and mathematical calculation.  
  
Arithmancy is derived from the Greek word arithma meaning number and mancy meaning prophecy. This more or less accurate form of divination has been used by wizards, for more than two thousand years, to analyze and develop their strengths and talents and chart their future paths.  
  
However, over the past five centuries, the meaning of arithmancy has changed. It is now being used as a code and the old meaning of arithmancy has faded. This, my personal dairy, is all recorded in arithmancy and as you read on you will also learn about my life and my works. I have placed a spell over all my works so that they can only be read if fire and lightening are put in the same room, if they are together. They will be destined to create great things.  
  
'So I am fire' thought Ginny silently, to herself 'well it fits, doesn't it? I mean my hair is red like fire and I have a quick temper and a fiery demeanor. And Draco, Draco has silverish-blond hair like lightening. Also it is hard to imagine him losing his temper, which means that he has a cool nature. Then are really destined to do great things together? We fit the prophecy, don't we? I wonder what will happen. What else is in those papers? I am dieing to find out.'  
  
She was interrupted from her smooth train of thought by Draco's voice.  
  
"Have you finished with that yet? Because if you haven't please hurry up, it getting really late and in case you haven't noticed tomorrow we have classes."  
  
To her surprise she felt a blush coming on her face. She bit her lip forcing it back. "Yes, I am done" she murmured. Just then Malfoy leaned a little closer. She could now smell is cologne. It smelled like cloves and lemon. She was so caught up in it that she did not notice how close they were. Malfoy head was looking into her paper and his hand was just inches away from hers. 'What perfect hair' thought Ginny. 'It looks so soft. I wish I could run my hand through it.' Then immediately she slapped herself mentally. She was thinking about Draco Malfoy. The Draco Malfoy.  
  
Draco jumped at the sudden movement beside him. "Are you all right" he asked her, with a hint of concern in his voice.  
  
Ginny felt the familair blush creeping on her face. "Yes" she muttered. She was becoming just like on of his groupies!  
  
Thankfully, Draco went back to reading her translation. Ginny was relived. 'What is wrong with me ' she mentally asked herself.  
  
"I think we will continue this tomorrow. It is already very late." Said Draco looking at the clock near the entrance. It said 'much too late for children'.  
  
Ginny, too tired to respond nodded in reply. Picking up her bag, she went out of the room after bidding a good night to Draco, who was still in there, as he had volunteered to tidy up the table.  
  
As Ginny left, she smiled to herself. She felt tired and very happy.  
  
  
  
  
  
____________________-  
  
Draco looked around the room in which he was alone in. there was not an awful lot to clean since they had barely opened one box. First he stuffed his papers neatly in his bag, separating his translations from the originals, in a muggle folder he had found in a junk shop in Diagon-Alley. He hated the wizard folders. They would organize his papers and more often then not he would find his arithmancy papers (which constituted most of the papers) mixed with his transfiguration homework.  
  
As he cleaned the table and put the papers and stationary in their respective places, he thought about his life. now with the downfall of voldemort his life had taken a drastic detour. His father, you-know-who's right hand man now had little to be proud of. True, the Malfoy name still held some respect, but Draco felt it was more out of fear then out of respect.  
  
His father, for a while after voldemorts downfall, had become quite mad. After a few months, he became all right. Now he started followers who were still loyal to the dark lord. Cornelius Fudge who had been thrown off his post of minister of magic for not taken action against the dark lord, was regularly seen at the malfoy manor. Fudge, whose motto was 'if you can't beat them, join them' had teamed up with lucious . 'well fudge is a dunderhead, father will have complete control over him' draco thought to himself.  
  
It was true that Fudge was stupid, but he had contacts all over the wizarding world, who were helpful to lucious. 'hah, I will never be able to call him father, not after last summer.'thoght Draco .  
  
Draco's vacation at the Manor was pure and utter hell. Lucious angry, thet his son had not taken his side while fighting for voldemort had resorted to whippings. Narcissa, draco's mother was not able to help him as she was under the imperious spell. Draco in the dungeon and whipped him with a hard belt or used crucitas every time he cried out in pain.'the only thing I learned at the malfoy manor was tolerance. Tolerance of great pain.' Draco thought bitterly he still had a couple of white scars left after a faithful house-elf had managed to ' tidy him up a bit' as he had sarcastically put it. Dinky was the only creature in the wretched Manor who did not snarl at the sight of him.  
  
By this time he had finished cleaning up the small mess they had made. Too tired to crawl to his dormitory, he put his bag in a corner of the room, and curled on one of the comfortable couches.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Ginny was bored. she had been up for nearly an hour. There was no quidditch practice also. She had nothing to do. There was to be a special assembly that morning for the whole school. That was what had woken her up nearly an hour ago. A messenger of dumbeldore's had gone into every dormitory and woken the person closet to the window. Unfortunately it was Ginny in the girl's griffindor dormitory. And no one else had woken up either, so she had no one to talk to. With a sigh she wondered what dumbeldore's special assembly was to be about. Deciding she had enough of the lonely common room, she decided to take a walk around hogwarts and grab something from the kitchens as well.  
  
As she stepped out of the common room, she remembered last night. She wanted to know more about the papers. Deciding that it could wait, she hurried to the kitchen to eat grab a bite before the rumbling in her stomach got any louder.  
  
As she reached the kitchen, she fondly remembered how she had discovered it. One night, when Fred and George were celebrating and needed some food, they had come to the kitchen. unknown to them, Ginny had followed their every step and found out the location of the kitchen. She loved to tickle the pear as she thought it was highly spirited and extremely amusing.  
  
Dobby and the other elves greeted her warmly. They loved her a lot and usually delivered a lot of her midnight snacks right to her bed. After greeting each one warmly, she sat down at a small table and waited while dobby brought her the food. In the corner was a visibly old house elf. He had long, white hair which was splattered rather messily across his large forehead. He was staring at Ginny which large tennis ball eyes. Ginny was growing rather scared of him. When Dobby came up to her she asked him who the old elf was and why he was staring at her so.  
  
"ol' nobby is my father. He is very old. He knows a lot about ancient times. He probably thinks you are mentioned a couple of thousand years ago in some cave men drawing's or something. Ignore him, he is batty."  
  
Ginny stared at dobby. This was the first time she had heard him speak proper English. She was rather astonished.  
  
Dobby, as if reading her mind said, " I have been taking some speaking classes with my monthly pay. Very useful, don't you think so? next I will learn French, so I can speak to the lovely ladies from beauxbatons." he said proudly banging his tiny fist on his maroon-jumper clad chest.  
  
Ginny could hardly resist her laughter. "I am sure that you will do very well dobby." she said, her voice a little shaky because of her laughter.  
  
After eating her breakfast, she made her way towards the room for a little work before she went into the great hall for the announcement. She quickly went into the room. Once again the majestic beauty of the room held her. Full of her breakfast, she decided to rest for a while on one of the couches. She was so relived to finally sit down, that she did not notice the long body of a handsome slytherin lying on the comfy sofa and sat down on him. 


	3. the project 2

What the hell" said Draco with a loud scream. Something heavy had sat one his stomach and was hurting him bad. With an almighty shove, he threw the heavy something of him and slowly got up only to be greeted by a red-faced, red-haired Ginny, who was lying on the floor.  
  
"What is your bloody problem, weasel? Don't you have anything better to do? Said Draco in a disgruntled voice. He did not like being woken like that.  
  
Ginny stood up, her face still red. She gave him a weak apology and prepared to leave when Draco spoke up, "what are you doing here? It must be 2 in the night."  
  
Ginny gave an unladylike snort. 'He must have slept her all night.' She thought to herself.  
  
"Look at the time, ferret boy. It is nearly seven in the morning. Time to wake up you dope" said Ginny giggling. Draco looked very bizarre. His hair was messy. His school robes were crumpled and his striped green and silver scarf was lying on the floor.  
  
Draco looked at his watch and nearly screamed. It was six thirty! He had promised pansy a snoggging session. She was going to be so pissed of. Quickly he straightened his robe and left the room, leaving Ginny standing in the room all alone.  
  
  
  
(`~! ~`)  
  
After nearly an hour of cursing herself in moaning myrtle toilet for her thoughtless and embarrassing act, Ginny remembered the special assembly. Giving her face a quick wash, she made her way to the Great hall.  
  
Went she entered the hall, she noticed that nearly everyone except prof.dumbeldore. Ginny went and sat next to her two best friends, Colin and Amanda. After a number of cheery hellos around the table, the topic came to the reason of the special assembly.  
  
"What do you think it can be? We never had a special assembly before." said Amanda with a small smile.  
  
"Maybe they are firing snape" said Neville as everybody laughed.  
  
Just then prof.dumbeldore entered and went to the top table. All the way along expectant eyes followed him up there. Seeing the suspense in the room, he decided to end it and start the assembly.  
  
"Good morning everyone. Today there is going to be some changes in our school. From today there shall be special hobby classes for everyone" He looked around the great hall only to see the confusion among the students. They were all looking around at each other and asking the same question. What was prof. Dumbeldore talking about?  
  
"Today 5 new teachers will be joining us. They are professor Stella, professor Alipes, professor Pierre and professor Defaeco and professor Facinus. They will be teaching you different activities. Professor Stella will be teaching you art." At this one of the 5 teachers, a young lady about 30 years stepped forward. She had short brown hair and a friendly smile. She waved to the crowd of students and smiled at some of them.  
  
Professor dumbeldore continued, "Miss Alipes will be teaching you dance." a lovely young woman stepped out of the group. She had long and beautiful jet- black hair and piercing blue eyes, which even Ginny could make out from where she was sitting. She waved and for the first time they heard her voice as she said hello.  
  
"Professor Manny will be teaching you sports." Professor Manny was a tall man in his late 30's. Short. He had a small splattering of blond hair across his baldhead. He had broad shoulders and lots of muscles, probably from the huge amount of exercise. He smiled and waved .  
  
"Professor defacues will be teaching you music". Professor defaecus was a man of about 50 years. He was tall and thin and he acknowledged the students with a smile.  
  
"And last, but not least Professor facinus will be teaching you trekking." Professor facinus was tall. He looked the meanest of all the teachers. He looked around the hall with a slight sneer on his long pointy face. He did not acknowledge Professor dumbeldore and remained in his seat.  
  
After following a short period of an uncomfortable silence, Dumbeldore continued. "More information will be given to you in the afternoon. Please continue your breakfast." said Dumbeldore, sitting down and gesturing to the students.  
  
Immediately a buzz followed his short speech. "What is this?" asked Colin.  
  
"It sound like fun"  
  
"Trekking sounds like fun"  
  
"So does music. I used to take piano lessons when I was a kid. It was fun." that was Neville.  
  
"Can we choose our activities"?  
  
"If we can, then I am taking art." said Amanda with smile. She loved art and had painted a lot of paintings in a her spare time.  
  
"Will we have to take all the activities"?  
  
"I wouldn't have enough time to study." That was Hermione, of course thought Ginny with a roll of her eyes. ~$~ That afternoon: -  
  
"Come on Ginny, we will be late for the afternoon assembly. I don't want to miss it. Hurry Gin!" said Amanda, a sense of urgency in a voice.  
  
Ginny had not packed her bag yet. "Wait a second, Amanda. Oh hell, dump it. Come on lets go."  
  
They reached the hall and sat down in their respective seats in the great hall. Once again like in the morning, there was a great amount of anticipation. In the center of the room, the five teachers were sitting and talking among themselves in low, murmuring voices. They was a stool behind them, which usually seated the sorting hat at the start of the term. However, today the students could not see what was on the stool.  
  
A couple of minutes after Ginny and Amanda arrived, professor dumbeldore entered and demanded for silence, by his usual method of shooting purple fire cracker from the tip of his wand.  
  
"We are going to organize you into small groups for each of the activities. Of course each student has to take at least on activity. However trekking is compulsory for each of you all. The student cannot pick the activity of his or her choice." At this there were many groans of disappointment. " The goblet of ice, goblet of fire and the goblet of water will sort you for each of these activities. Some of the more talented ones among you may be selected for more than one of the hobbies. You will be sorted on the hobby which the goblet thinks is best for you it has all been fixed in your schedule."  
  
"You will be called on by one. You will come up and one or more of the goblets will toss a slip with your name on it. You will be taken for those activities.the goblet of fire represents the art class, goblet of ice - the dancing class, goblet of water the music and goblet of sand represents sports."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
tbc 


	4. nice surprises

The awakening of the lady  
  
Chapter 4  
  
  
  
Ginny gaped at the head table. This was going to be fun. Momentarily wondering how the goblets worked, Ginny looked around the hall. Everyone seemed excited. 'There were a lot of activities this term,' said Ginny with a smile on her face.  
  
Dumbeldore clapped his hands for silence, after telling Mr. Filch to bring out the four Goblets. Each one was beautiful in their own way.  
  
The sand goblet was the color of mud and gravel, but on the rim of the goblet, there were several stones and gems, which could have passed for diamonds and rubies. All the goblets seemed to be decorated in a similar manner. They were the color of their respective elements, and had different symbols on their rims reminding the students of the charms placed on them.  
  
There was one bigger goblet in the center. It was quite plain, when compared to the other goblets. It looked like it was made of wood; it was such a dark color. It did not appear to have many designs on it.  
  
"You will write your name on a slip of parchment and place it in the biggest goblet" said Dumbledore from the high table. "This will be done over the night. By tomorrow, you shall know in which activity you are be in. good night"  
  
Immediately followed a buzz of speech. Ginny looked around the Griffindor table and instantly became a little sad. No one seemed to talk to her a lot nowadays. Amanda always seemed to be far away flirting with some guy. And Ron was too busy to talk to her, as always. Losing her appetite for dinner, and sure nobody would miss her, Ginny, decided to leave the Gryffindor table and wander about for a little while.  
  
She made her way to the common room, before anyone saw her. She felt very vulnerable at the moment and she knew that if she saw anyone she would start crying. They would start sympathizing with her, and sympathy was not what she needed right now.  
  
Slowly she walked keeping her hears open for the approaching footsteps of a passerby. Hearing nothing she continued walking. Suddenly she heard the softest of sounds. Quickly, she ducked into the nearest hiding place, which happened to be Moaning Myrtle's toilet.  
  
She entered one of the cubicles and waited for the sound of the footsteps to disappear. She could hear moaning myrtle in one of the other cubicles. She was making such a racket, that Ginny could not hear anything outside. Stepping out of the cubicle, she put her ear to the door. She could hear a voice outside and it sounded like a male's voice.  
  
"No Goyle, shut up. Father would tell me he knew anything about it. These are small uprisings. They are in Romania, besides. And father would be the first to know, wouldn't he?"  
  
'That voice' thought Ginny from inside the bathroom. 'It sounds like Draco.' from out side another s voice replied something in a quieter tone, which Ginny did not catch. She did catch two words though; mudbloods and snakes.  
  
"You may be right" came Draco's voice, filtered through the door. " We will have to wait and see. If the dark lord is rising, he has to give us more signs than that." Said Draco in a resigned voice.  
  
Some more murmurings and Ginny heard Draco's voice again. "I will inform my father, but not now," he was saying irritably.  
  
Ginny heard them move of and sighed with relief. Draco and his little cronies. Then she frowned. She could have sworn that she heard some reluctance in Draco's voice when mentioned the uprising and the reappearance of the Dark Lord. Deciding to do a little more research she went to the ultimate place for the job; the library.  
  
Ginny knew that the library would have some answers. She was not a sure though, anyhow she could hunt information on Rampant as well.  
  
  
  
Opening the door to the library, Ginny found the library was empty. Not even Madame Pince was there. She sighed. She had no idea where to start. Looking at the various shelves, Ginny felt lost. For a moment, she thought she was going to cry, as a sense of hopelessness flooded her. She went right to the back of the library, where no one could see her. Too her surprise she found, behind one of the shelves, professor Alipes browsing through the books. Ginny gasped audibly which caused the tall professor to look towards her.  
  
" Hello there. How are you? I am professor Achelois Alipes," she said with a small and polite smile.  
  
Ginny continued staring. She was overcome with shock. Up close, professor Alipes looked even more beautiful. 'She must be a half-veela' thought Ginny to herself.  
  
"Sit down together? Perhaps outside, I was feeling a bit lonely so I came here." Said the professor with a small smile  
  
Ginny grinned. Company at last! "Sure professor. By the way, my name is Ginny weasley. Let's go out side, near the lake."  
  
All thoughts of Rampant forgotten, Ginny led the professor down the hall, both of them talking wildly, all the way.  
  
  
  
  
  
~!~  
  
  
  
  
  
Ginny yawned. She was feeling tired. She had spent the rest of the evening with professor Alipes. They had a great time. " She is so good-looking and pleasant.  
  
As she washed herself and got ready for bed, she remembered that she had not worked on the project that whole day. Promising herself that she would do it the first thing the next morning, Ginny got into her bed.  
  
As she lay on her comfortable four-poster bed, she thought about her whole day. It had been quite nice. Full of new surprises around every corner. The four new professors', the best which was Professor Alipes, at least to Ginny. The new activities bringing more exciting fun to Hogwarts all added her delight. All in all, Ginny had enjoyed today more than ever.  
  
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))))))) ))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))  
  
  
  
Hello every body!!!  
  
I know I have not updated for sometime and I am sorry. I was not well for some time. I am so sorry.  
  
I like to thank all the people who reviewed my story so far.  
  
Draco's forever more  
  
Brown-sugar  
  
Draco's gal  
  
Kimberly4270  
  
Sadie  
  
Sexy-sassy-sweetie  
  
Ms. Raye sinic  
  
Txt-Eva  
  
Opal star- thanks for putting me in your favorite author's list !!!!!  
  
Ginny Yvette  
  
Jes  
  
Darcel  
  
Hypermonkey76  
  
Eclipse 2003  
  
Thanks a lot!!!!!!!!!! 


	5. further progress

" Amanda, she was so great. She talked so freely. I feel as if I have known her for years."  
  
" Ginny, you have been going on about her for half an hour now. Please let me finish the arithmancy homework. I am going to be so screwed up if I don't. Look, there is Neville. Go talk to him. He looks lonely." Said Amanda in a tone of boredom.  
  
Ginny turned around. Neville was sitting on one of the chairs near the fire. He was wearing a long face. Ginny immediately went up to him.  
  
"Hi Neville. How's life?" asked Ginny, sitting on the chair opposite him.  
  
"Not too good, Gin. I just got an owl. Gram's sick and I won't be able to go home for the holidays. This just really sucks."  
  
"Hey, we are here for you. Ron and Harry will keep you company and so will I. Hermione will be coming back in 2 weeks and so will lavender and Parvati."  
  
" I guess." Said Neville with a soft sigh. " Excuse me gin, I have to do my potions homework. We have to research on invisibility potions. Want to come with me to the library?" he said in a hopeful voice.  
  
"Sure" she said. She had to do some research herself. She had been lagging behind in her project.  
  
A little while later...  
  
Ginny sat poring over one of the diary of Randolph Rampant. It didn't seem to make sense. They weren't Latin or English or any part of any wizard language. Draco who had been with her for over an hour, had checked with the librarian. They had tried the reading it from the normal way, i.e. right to light, they had even tried the Arabic way of right to left and the Chinese columns. However nothing seem to make sense.  
  
" It looks more like a number of letters of the English language just written for the sake of writing them," said Ginny getting expatriated.  
  
"Yeah, maybe he wanted to practice his handwriting." Said Draco sarcastically. " Look, I am trying okay. You never know." said Ginny getting slightly annoyed.  
  
They went back to poring over the books. Draco began to look for a pattern. To his surprise, he saw a small arrow pointing in a different direction in the center of each page. He became excited. Crossing out the other entries in his notebook, he started on a fresh page. He wrote down the letter that came immediately after the arrow and then the letters following it. After he finished the sentence, he glanced and read it out softly; still not able to believe he had cracked the code, which had tormented millions of great scientists all over the world. "The first day: I have no idea what to start with. Everything seems so new, so exciting. The students are eager to learn, bless their minds. Except for young first years, they are a little skittish in class. But that is expected of them." Draco read out from the book.  
  
Ginny jumped. " What" she asked. " I did it. I cracked the code." Said Draco not a trace of emotion in his voice. He was never good at sharing his thoughts with people, and he did not want to act immature by screaming or acting like a six-year old.  
  
He could see Ginny was trying to keep her cool. He had cracked the code, read out a few lines and now was acting perfectly cool about it. As if he had done nothing great. He knew she did not like that.  
  
He expected her to blow. Instead she took the paper and began reading it in silence, translating in her mind. " This must be from when he had started teaching. Go further and start translating. I will start translating from page 8 you do it from page 16." Said Ginny  
  
"Why don't we do one page at a time." Said Draco " that way, we can finish faster."  
  
"Okay" said Ginny. They started from the top and finished the page within 10 minutes. There were some mistakes, but they decided that it was more or less okay.  
  
Ginny began to feel hungry. She had not eaten anything since 3 o'clock and now it was nearing 8. She got up and began to pack her bag when she heard Draco call her back.  
  
" Hey weasel, where do you think your going? As much as I despise your company I need to finish this project. So get your skinny ass back here."  
  
"Forget it, Malfoy. I was here for quite some time. People get hungry, you know. I am hungry right now so don't test my patience." Said Ginny swinging her book bag on her shoulder.  
  
"Weasel, get back here right now. You are starting to annoy me." Said Draco getting p and moving towards her.  
  
He was now within 2 feet of her. Ginny pretended not to notice the distance between them and continued arguing like there was nothing wrong.  
  
" You are a super spoiled brat. You can't get everything you want in life, you know."  
  
"Shut up weasel. You don't know what you are talking about."  
  
"Yes I do." Said Ginny gaining some courage from the fact that he was starting to get a little testy under the influence of what she was saying. " You think that just because you are a death eater you can get what ever you want, whenever you want. That is not. Ginny didn't get a chance to finish. Draco lost his temper and began shouting at her in a manner most unlike him.  
  
" Shut up! You don't know what you are talking about. Just shut up. What I do is none of your business so keep your nose out."  
  
Then suddenly he stopped. He looked at here as if he had just seen her. "Go." He said for of an order than anything else.  
  
Ginny was too frightened to say anything. She slid behind him as silently as possible. Just as she reached the door, she turned around and saw Draco. He was sitting at the head of the table with his head in his hands. " Sorry" she muttered, just loud enough for him to hear her. She waited long enough to see the surprised expression on his face and then she left. 


	6. what are you selected for? dance or art?

"Okay class, time to put away your books' and take out your wands. Today will be a practical lesson." A low cheer went around the class. They had been studying the effect of magic on electronical items. But up till now they had not had a practical lesson, and most of the students, especially the muggle-borns were looking forward to it. It was not very difficult. All they had to do was to imagine a sequence in their mind and then they had to display it on the television or radio, using magic. This was especially used for deaf and dumb people to communicate, but the school felt it necessary that every one be taught it.  
  
"Everyone pair up and select a television or a radio. I will check on you in 15 minutes. First pair to get it right will get 20 points to their house." Their muggle studies professor shouted over the noise as the students hurried to find their partners and to select their television. Soon every one was paired up. Ginny and Amanda were together. They ran over to the TV nearest to them. It was a 21-inch model, as were all the sets. It was a flat screen TV, and when the turned it on, all they got was an electrical blue color. Somewhat disappointed at not getting any channels, they started to get to work.  
  
It was not that easy as the textbook made it seem. At first Amanda managed to get a fuzzy picture with absolutely no resolution at all. But Ginny hadn't managed to get even a flicker on the screen. The text said that the TV brought out your greatest thoughts, something that is always on your mind. Only you had to imagine it a lot, right then.  
  
20 minutes later, Ginny still hadn't got the hang of it. Amanda had however achieved a picture of perfect resolution. It turns out the fuzzy picture was of her grandparents; they had died while fighting Voldemort. Most of the other people had got similar images. Parents, brothers or sisters or in some cases even themselves. Some people were too vain. But no one had managed to perfect it. They had to get their thoughts in a sequence, like a movie. They had only succeeded in doing that in frames.  
  
Reggie Wonly of Hufflepuff and Kim Belton of Ravenclaw were the first to get it. Soon afterwards nearly everyone had except for Ginny. Their professor made them change partners and Ginny became partners with Rolland. Within minutes she began to get a picture. Their professor explained that sometimes, when people are very close as in very friendly, both of them couldn't get their views across on the television because they did not have to. They could more or less perceive what the other was thinking. Both Amanda and Ginny nodded. They had been best friends for a long time and knew each other better then anyone else.  
  
Towards the end of the class, Amanda reminded Ginny about the selections for the extra curricular activities. The selections would be arriving in letters to their respective dormitories. Since this was the last class for the day, they would find out their class within 10 minutes. They news spread around the class and reminded everyone of the letters that awaited them. Soon the whole class was buzzing with noise. The professor seeing that they were done with the class, let them go early. The students went up in different ways to their own common rooms, all the while making a certain amount of noise and disturbing the other classes. Ginny was walking with Amanda and Rolland. They were all taking about what they wanted. As they entered the common room, they saw a stack of letters on the table. As they stepped forward to receive them, the letters came towards their particular addressee. Ginny and Amanda caught theirs before it hit them, but Roland was less lucky. His letter flew right in to his mouth and he was stunned for a minute, before removing the slightly damp letter from his mouth.  
  
" I'm selected for dance." Said Ginny grabbing Amanda's hands doing a little jig. Amanda had gotten art. Rolland got trekking. He wasn't particularly sporty, but he was adventurous.  
  
By this time, the rest of the students started pouring in. Neville, on seeing his letter zoom at him, ducked only to make it chase him around the common room until hermoine caught it and handed it to him. Almost every one had gotten what they wanted. Hermione and Ron were for sports and Harry and Neville were for music. Amanda saw a notice on the board and hushed the other students to keep quite so she could read it out to them.  
  
" Dear students," the notice said,  
  
" I trust that u have all gotten your letters by now. As there are a large number of students to accommodate in to the program, you will all be divided into a number of sessions. Dance, music and art for the fifth, sixth and seventh years will be after dinner from 8:30 till 10 everyday except for Tuesdays and the weekends, so as to not interfere with your studies. Dance, music and art for the younger children will be held from 4 till 5:30 except for Wednesday and the weekends. Trekking and outdoor sports will be held at 4 till 6:30 every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Indoor games will be held on Tuesday and Saturday from 4-5. Today being a Monday, the activities should be started today itself. Inside your letter, you will also find a set of directions, telling you where to go for your respective activities. You are expected to be on time. Any indiscipline will cause you to lose points for your house. I hope you will enjoy your selves immensely."  
  
Yours sincerely, Minerva mcgonagall Deputy headmistress and head of Griffinder house  
  
Suddenly everyone was busy. The younger ones and everyone for trekking and sports, left and the remaining started discussing what they were going to do and some started doing their homework.  
  
" Hey ginny," said a voice from across the room. "You got a letter from your mom." At that moment, a rather exhausted Errol slumped next to her feet. Gently taking the owl in her arms, and removing the letter tied to his leg Ginny made her way towards the table where her books were kept so that she could start her homework.  
  
Opening the letter with one hand he gave it a quick scan. Her mother had heard about the number of activities this term and wanted to know how she was coping with the workload. She told Ginny that Charlie would probably stop by for Christmas and that she would also await Ginny's reply soon.  
  
Ginny opened her bag and took out a piece of empty parchment and penned a letter as quickly as possible to her mother, saying that all was well and that she would come home for Christmas, if Charlie was.  
  
After refreshing Errol a bit, she sent him back home and started on her homework to practice the transfigurations spell and to revise the potion done today during class.  
  
______________________________________________________________________ 


	7. first dance lesson

Ginny stretched out in front of the common room fir. It was a cold day. Last night, after she had finished her homework, she had gone to the quidditch pitch and flew around the ground a couple of times. Everyone was busy with his or her own work and no one had bothered to ask her what she was doing. After a while, she had gone to see professor Snape about some homework. Ginny was rather talented at potions and professor Snape was impressed with her as she read more than just the school syllabus; she would borrow books from the library and do some of the higher level potions. Right now she was having a problem getting some of the ingredients for a wolfsbane potion. Snape had promised to get some from hogsmeade by the next day.  
  
Ginny's books lay in front of her. She had done a bit of her homework, but she was getting bored. Closing her books, she turned her attention towards the notice on the board. Her had to attend her class in another 10 minutes. As she thought of this, she smiled. Her life seemed so much busier now. It helped to keep her mind of her problems.  
  
She dumped her books in her bag, which was lying at the foot of the couch that she was sitting on. Taking a small backpack that contained her leotard, a bottle of water and some other accessories, she made her way towards the Great Hall, which was where the dance practice was to be held.  
  
Just as she expected, she was early. There were only a few students and the dance teacher. The Great Hall had been altered a bit to fit the class. On the side there were poles so the students could stretch. In a corner, all rolled up were a bunch of mats. A little higher on the wall was some kind of spotlight. To the left, were about 30 or so chairs. There were 2 tables, on which various kinds of props were kept.  
  
Ginny wondered where to change. She turned around and saw the changing rooms. There were 4 of them, 2 for the boys and 2 for the girls. She went into the fist one. Suddenly, it was apparent why no one was out there; there were all here. In a corner she could see 3 hufflepuffs all in different colored leotards. They were looking in the mirror and lamenting their figure. There were 2 sixth year Slytherins, who were standing near the door and taunting 2 Ravenclaws about how they looked. Ginny went into one of the stalls and changed in to her light blue leotard.  
  
When she came out, nearly everybody was gone. Only the 2 Ravenclaws were still there. Ginny took a look at her self in the mirror. She did not look as bad as she thought she would. The leotard but out her figure as t was body hugging. The neck was a little deep allowing for a bit of cleavage to be seen. She tied her hair in a ponytail and allowed her to fall behind her. She could feel the eyes of the Ravenclaw girls on her. She turned around and introduced herself just as they were about to do so themselves. Then all 3 of them walked out of the changing room in silence.  
  
The Great Hall was nearly full. A few of the boys were yet to come. Most of the girls Were sitting in silence, as they did not know any one. Ginny and her 2 friends took a seat right in the front as all the ones at the back were taken. Even as she sat she could feel the eyes of many of the boys on her. From then some of her nervousness went away; she knew she looked good.  
  
In a few minutes, all the boys and girls were seated. Most of the boys were hidden in the shadow. A few more confident ones were seated in the front. From where Ginny was sitting, she could see Colin Creevey, a ravenclaw boy and a hufflepuff boy who were both in her muggle studies class. She gave them a small wave, which they returned, rather nervously.  
  
Professor Alipes went around greeting each student. When she met everyone, she proceeded with the class.  
  
"Good evening students. I am so happy to be here. For many of you, this is the first time that you have taken up and kind of dance form. Am I right?" she said. To this there was a lot of whispered murmuring and nodding of heads.  
  
" Well, there is nothing to be afraid of. This year, I will be teaching you to jive and to do ballet, along with other classical dance forms. At the end of the year, the entire class from the fifth years to the seventh years will be taking part in a musical. There will be plenty of rolls for everyone." At this there were some looks of disbelief passed around.  
  
Ignoring the whispers, she continued, " Today we shall start with some basic exercises. Will everyone please take a mat from the corner and lie down on it. Push the chairs at the back so you can have more space." At this there was a lot of scraping of chairs and rustling to get a mat that wasn't stepped on too much.  
  
"Girls on the left and boys to the right, please. Now begin by doing these exercises." And she showed them 6 exercises, which they did with ease.  
  
15 minutes later.......  
  
" I think we have done enough for today. I will be giving you a schedule, for our later classes. On Wednesday, I will start with jive or ballet or if any of you have a suggestion, I will be happy to start with whatever you like" she said with a smile. "And remember to practice all your exercises."  
  
With 5 minutes, the Hall was emptied. Ginny left with her two ravenclaw friends. She did not feel disappointed, but the class wasn't exactly to her expectations. Deciding that Wednesday would be better, she went up to her common room.  
  
________________________________________________________________________  
  
A/n hi everyone. How do u like the story so far? Please review and tell me!!!!!!!  
  
Do any of you know any good dances that I should write about? Trouble is I don't know the name of any dance. Also could someone suggest a musical? I was thinking cats, but I decided not to. Anything else?  
  
-Princess 17 


	8. translating the hidden text

"Ugh, ron your bird is so annoying. Look what it did to my book." Said Ginny in exasperation, holding up a muggle miggs comic partially covered in bird droppings.  
  
"Relax Gin, I'll take pig to the owlery." Said Ron. His eyes passed over the dirty book. "Ask hermione for a cleaning spell. I am sure she knows one."  
  
Having read the comic already, Ginny decided to throw it on the out on the way to the library. Packing some more parchment and quills then she would have normally used, she made her way towards the library, only stopping to throw the shit-covered book.  
  
After greeting Madame Pince, she went in to the room, which had been assigned to her and Draco. She felt as if she had not seen it in days, but in reality she had been there only the day before.  
  
She sat down at the table where she usually sat. Draco was not there today. She had not seen him at all that day, and she had not been able to tell him to come. Deciding that it was for the best, she started working.  
  
The last time that she had seen the table, it was a mess of quills and ink and parchment. However, now it was as spick and span as it had been on the first day. 'Apparently, Draco knows the same cleaning spell as Hermione does.' Thought Ginny. Continuing from where they left off, she picked up the first diary and searched for the mark that Draco had made to signify where they had finished. Taking a fresh parchment, she starting translating the diary slowly:  
  
' A little bit about my background first. I am part druid part witch. My mother, Alphinetius was the chief of druids for a period of 50 years, during which she met my father, Ronald Rampant. My father was a refugee of the magical world, due to some politics because of which he had to give up his exalted position of Minister of Magic and take up refuge in the seclusion where the druids were. At first he was not welcome. Druids did not take well to witches as they felt that witches had robbed them of the glory and power that they so rightfully deserve.  
  
The Druids were a priestly caste existing among the Celtic people. The Celts, as they were called, were a tribal people who spread throughout Gaul, Britain, Ireland, and other parts of Europe, Asia Minor, and the Balkans. This migration had occurred by the 5th. Century BC. By the first century AD the Roman had launched many attacks against the Celts that greatly dwindled their population.  
  
There is little first hand knowledge or the Druids. The chief reason for this is that they taught their acolytes secret Druidical knowledge by word of mouth. None of this trusted knowledge was committed to writing; it was all learned through mnemonics.  
  
My father approached my mother about staying there for sometime. My mother was hesitant, as most of the people were against this. However, she harbored him in one of her ships. Later, through the passing of suspicious eyes, it came to be known that a witch was living amongst them with the aid of the chief. Alphinetius was stripped of her power and sent to live in exile in Romania with my father. By the time they reached Romania, my mother was pregnant with me. No sooner had their feet touched the Romanian soil, and then did my mother start having contractions. I was born.  
  
When I was 3, my mother would teach me druid spells, which I could do as I was part druid. My father began work as muggle ship inspector. We lived a comfortable life.  
  
When I was 8, I was sent to a school to learn basic witchcraft. It was a boarding school, and very much in seclusion from the rest of he world. I was there until the age of 11, where I was sent to Durmstrang for my education. You must remember till now I had no contact from my parents. When I returned to Romania for my vacations, I was greeted by a world of sadness and dark. My house was destroyed, the port where my father worked was no more and there was no trace of my parents. On further investigation, I learnt that Voldemort or 'the dark lord' and come to power. Being isolated from the wizarding world for so long I had no idea who this was or he extent of the damage he had caused.  
  
I spent my vacations living of a few neighbors, and when I returned to durmstrang, the whole education regime had changed. It was now in tune with the rest of the world. Everywhere in the castle, there were pictures of the different dark lords. I remember 2 families that had the most number of people working for the dark lord. One were the Malfoys and the other were the Blacks.'  
  
' A lot more emphasis was placed on the dark arts and other dark forces. Imperius was one of the highly popular spells. By the time I was in my third year, half the school had disappeared. Most of the seniors had gone to fight with the dark lord. Many more had been killed by him. Those were bad times.'  
  
'After my fifth year, I quit school as I felt I no longer needed it. There was nothing being taught as teachers would go missing for days and there would be no enquiry. There was no doubt that nearly all the teachers at Durmstrang were involved in the dark arts, in one way or the other.'  
  
' Afterwards, I wondered in the forests, where I picked up many magical plants and learned powerful spells. I also learned of lots of information about stars and planets and about the future. Most of this I learned from the centaurs. They were a great help to me.'  
  
'After this period of journey for nearly 12 years, I returned to the civilized world. Except it was not at all civilized. There were mass murders everywhere. Voldemort had many followers and he was considered invincible. On arriving there I was required to make a decision to join either of the sides. I preferred to remain neutral and once again withdrew from public view.'  
  
' I went to the Middle East, where I had always wanted to visit. The land was barren and dry. It was extremely primitive. However it was very peaceful. Voldemort had not extended his power here. I soon found out why.'  
  
'The Middle East had practically no witches. As far as I knew, I was the only witch for miles. I kept my wand, but other then that I had no contact with the outside world.'  
  
'During this time, I had a lot of neighbors, though I never moved. I suppose it had to do with the fact that I was constantly practicing my witchcraft and loud bangs and other 'effects' caused me to be an undesirable neighbor. Other than that I was quite likeable, I think.'  
  
'One night, I made a startling discovery. It was so amazing. I wanted to share it with rest of the world. This is how I recorded my progress; in the form of a diary. I hope that you will understand my actions. I am very sorry for what I have done and I wish I could take it back now. But that is no possible.'  
  
And this was all Ginny read before she fell into a deep slumber right there. 


	9. and the first kiss

Draco sat on the edge of his bed. He had been very bored for the past 2 hours. Crabbe and Goyle were sleeping, he had Pansy were fighting, and it was too late to go to the library. He did not remember ever feeling so restless. Deciding a trip to the school kitchen was in order, he threw his robe around his bare shoulders and made his way across the cold stone floor.

Today had been pretty much boring. The magnificent trio had barely made an appearance all day. Other than Quidditich practice, the only thing to interest him was the sight of Ginny flinging a snowball in the direction of Neville, which instead landed on Potter.

Though he knew that it was not intentional, it gave him great pleasure to know that Potter had been clobbered by a girl.

The school halls were empty, even though it was not that late. Draco checked his watch. It was 10 minutes to 10. Draco wondered what to do. He did not feel all that hungry either. He decided to risk the library anyway. Maybe by some fluke of a chance, he would find something of interest. 'Preferably Ginny.' His mind thought. 'Where did that come from?" he thought again, slapping himself mentally.

To his surprise, the door of the room was unlocked. Thinking Ginny was inside; he burst in with a loud noise. To his even greater astonishment, Professor Vector was sitting alone reading the papers. Draco's face turned red with embarrassment, although it was not visible in the darkness of the room.

"Good evening, Draco" she said. "I will get straight to the point. I am amazed at the amount of progress that the two of you have achieved. Unfortunately I am feeling too tired to examine all your work tonight. I will make sure I go through every aspect of it tomorrow. But I am very, very excited. This is a mark of greatness, which will go down in history. Why, you both will be famous! And I of course will get some of the credit. After all it was me who introduced you to all of this. Yes, yes ........." saying this, she swept her robes of the ground and left the room.

Draco instantly became tired. He was not expecting all this. Admittedly he was excited when he had discovered the code, but he had still not told his father about this joint venture, with a Weasley, no less.

Once again, he felt overwhelmed. A tiny corner of himself was regretting ever taking part in this venture at all. But most of time, he felt pleased with himself. This was something he enjoyed. This was something that took his mind of his father.

'And the added bonus of Ginny, as well.' He thought to himself. For once, he allowed himself to think about her. In his mind's eye, he saw her long red hair, her milky white skin and her warm brown eyes. He recalled with fondness the way she had laughed when he had once told a joke.

'Is this the way I am going to have to continue for the rest of the night'? He said aloud.

Ginny sat up and rubbed her eyes for what seemed like the umpteenth time that night. She had fallen behind in her school work because of the project and quidditch practice.

And to make things worse, she had a potions test tomorrow. Although she was good in potions, she was having a hard time keeping up with the class. With any luck she would get at least an E tomorrow.

To add to her misery, most of the common room was up as well. They had come back from their classes and were sitting up for the past 2 hours talking about how they spent their time there. Between conversations, Ginny was able to memorize the 15 uses of mildew and understand the basic composition of Holman's draught. She had managed to accomplish this feat in 2 hours.

Not much, considering it took up not even half the page of her 30 page lesson.

She groaned and turned to her side. The crowd showed no signs of thinning. On the contrary, it seemed to be growing much nosier. Ginny flipped through the pages of her text listlessly. There were still about 10 concepts which she needed to understand. The red water effect and the silver mirror effect did not make any sense to her. Nor did the Benedict's poison or Coker's experiment.

Ginny thought for a while. Deciding she would be better off studying in the library, she packed her quills and parchments and went off.

Once outside the common room, she heaved a sigh of relief at the lack of noise. She looked around. There was nobody around. She made her way towards her special room in the library.

On opening the door, she was relieved that no one was there. She put her books on one side of the table and resigned herself to study, when she heard a voice from the rear of the room.

"Evening, Weasley" said a Malfoy, scaring the wit out of her. "Couldn't stand the company of your stinking house-mates?" he said in a voice, heavy with sarcasm. 'What am I doing?' he thought silently.

Ginny was too shocked too respond. "Go away." she said, too tired to think of a suitable response.

Even from the other end of the room Draco could see the desperation in her face. He came over to where she was sitting. Her hair was swept up all over her face. There were plenty of dark circles under her eyes and robes hung loosely over her body. She looked like shit.

"What's up" he said in I-don't give-a-damn kind of voice.

"I've got a major test in potions tomorrow. And I have barely finished studying even a quarter of the portion which is included in the test." She groaned.

"Do you want me to help you?" Draco asked, surprising himself as well as Ginny. The look of astonishment on her face was more then evidence.

"Sure, if you don't mind."

"Okay. Which chapter are you having the test on?"

"Poisons and related experiments"

"Umm........ Should I explain the whole chapter to you? Basically it is all related. I think it will be easier that way."

"Sure, what ever you like."

Draco was surprised at his own behavior. It wasn't like him to be so spontaneous. He usually thought hard before speaking.

Ginny took a seat on the couch. The table was still full of papers. Deciding he would tell her about professor Vector's visit later, he sat next to her.

"First of all, understand that you are a Weasley and that I, as a Malfoy, am under no obligation to instruct you on anything." 'That's much better' Draco thought. Then on seeing the hurt expression on Ginny's face, he apologized in an indistinct manner.

Within two hours, he had managed to explain most the concepts. He was aided by the fact that Ginny was actually quite smart. And he was surprised at how much fun he was having, although he would never admit it to himself or anyone else. She would laugh pleasantly at his jokes and would occasionally wipe her hair away from her face. Maybe he was becoming a bit loose in the head, but he was starting to find red hair extremely sexy.

She was becoming visibly very tired. But they still had a lot more to go, even though they had covered the major portions. Her eyes kept on dropping every 10 minutes as it was nearly 2 in the morning.

"Paraitre caffeine" Draco said in a low voice. Two small cups of espresso appeared on the table. Handing one to Ginny and telling to a take a small break, he proceeded to take small sips of the bitter liquid.

"What's this?" came Ginny's weary voice.

"It's a muggle drink. Muggles drink it to keep them awake. It's effective only for a short period of time. They drink it during conferences to help them stay awake."

Ginny took a sip of the hot liquid. As it slipped down her throat, she was reminded exactly how hungry she was. She could have sworn that she heard the coffee swirling around in her stomach.

Draco apparently had noticed her discomfort. He had conjured a plate of éclairs, which he kept on the table. Ginny arose from the couch and took a seat at the table, at which Draco was already seated.

As she walked, the first 2 buttons of her robe had come undone. Fortunately for her, she had taken to wearing muggle clothing under the robe, as they were more comfortable. Unfortunately, she had chosen this particular day to wear a tank top. With a rather deep neck.

Draco gulped. His testosterone fuelled mind was taking a course of its own. Looking away, he continued to eat his éclair. Ginny came and sat next to him. In spite of the coffee, Ginny still looked very drowsy. He took a moment to study her features. She had small, nicely rounded curves which could not be seen clearly through the robe. Her nose was small and sharp. Her red hair was still swirling in her face every now and then.

'Bet I am taller then her' Draco thought silently. At 6 feet 2" he was taller then most people. In fact he made Ginny look extremely minute.

"Shall we go to coker's experiment then?" Ginny said. She looked a little better after eating the éclair.

'How about I show it to you? It would be easier that way." Draco said in stroke of genius. Suddenly he remembered that he had the key to the dungeons. All slytherin prefects did.

"I have the key to the dungeon." He said whipping it out of his robe pocket in a flourish.

"And that occurred to you just now?" said Ginny in a sarcastic voice.

"Look, I am just helping." The word 'helping' sounded strange in his mouth. "You don't have to bite my head of. It is not as if I am doing ........." he was cut short by Ginny's waving hand.

"I am sorry. My nerves are a bit uptight. Must be that coffee." She mumbled.

"It's ok. Come on. Leave your stuff here. I'll show the three experiments and that's it."

Ginny threw a grateful glance in his direction. 'Thanks, malfoy. I really appreciate this."

"Just remember you owe me a favor" Draco snarled back. It was always nice to know that a Weasley was in debt with a Malfoy.

'He does blow hot and cold doesn't he?' Ginny thought with a little smile. Still there was no escaping the fact that he was exceedingly handsome. And ever so muscular.

_In the dungeons..._

"Take the last cauldron and use the necessary materials, Weasley."

Ginny did the same. After the 2nd experiment, Ginny was starting to feel drowsy again. Her hair was sticking to the back of her neck. The dungeon was starting to feel hot because of the fire under the cauldron.

Meanwhile, random thoughts were running through her head. 'Why is he doing this?' 'Why is he helping me?' 'Why is he so cute?' 'aarghhhh'

Her head was starting to feel dizzy. Through the haze of misty smoke from her cauldron, he could see Malfoy going through her textbook. She called out to him once.

Malfoy heard her. 'Is it my imagination, or his Malfoy running towards me?' she thought with a slight smirk.

'Idiot girl, you used too much dragon dung. Are you feeling light headed? Come on lie down' Draco said, putting of the fire.

'On the ground?' Ginny asked in that same light headed voice.

'No, on my head, stupid. Obviously on the ground. You don't see a bed here, do you? He said as he pushed her on the damp floor of the dungeon.

"Ow Malfoy. You are hurting me. Why can't you conjure up a bed, like you did with the food? Could you get my teddy bear, too? I think it is on my bed. And my night gown. I think I will go to sleep now." With a soft sigh, she fell asleep on Draco's lap.

He was shocked. Putting away all the cauldrons, he carried her back to the library. He reasoned at how light she was. He couldn't very well take her to the Slytherin or Gryffindor common rooms.

He placed her on the couch. She woke the moment he placed her there.

'Malfoy, get your hand of me. What do you think you are doing?" she said in a half hearted manner.

The combined use of caffeine and a long night coupled along with rich chocolate and his hormones gave in to the bait. He began screaming like a lunatic.

"I save your life from that mess of you potion which you make, help you to study something that I learned last year at ONE in the night and have to live with the knowledge that we may never be together."

"What?" came Ginny's tired voice.

Draco tsk-tsked before he kissed her on the mouth.

Hey people! I know it has been a long time. Please tell me how you like this fic and also whether I should continue. My exams are coming up and I don't think I want to continue it if it is not worthwhile.

And feel free to express your opinion. Where I stay, it is a free country.

Btw any one knows what a beta reader is?


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